US Navy

Additional highlights from the AFCEA NOVA Chapter's 10th Annual Naval IT Day include notes about procurement and acquisition in the coming lean years and improvement of IT systems for better data management.

"Get it done quickly" is the mantra of Chris Miller, Executive Director of the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Center, Atlantic (SPAWAR), which is also referred to as the Navy's Information Dominance Systems Command. While SPAWAR's Pacific office handles research and development, Miller's group, based in Charleston, N.C. is responsible for acquisitions and getting technology on board ships and into the hands of warfighters.

For the Navy and other services, advantages of biofuels are obvious and desirable. Top Agriculture Department and Navy leaders emphasize the benefits of renewable energy sources not only to the military but also to the entire United States. How can industry help the Navy reach its timetable goals, and how do all participants in the alternative energy theater collaborate to share resources and implement them?

According to Defense Secretary Gates, the Navy plans to repeal its ban on women serving on submarines. He signed a letter to Congress last week that outlines the Navy's plan to lift the policy by phasing in women assigned to subs.

Or rather, insignia. The U.S. Navy's chief of naval operations has approved officers and enlisted to wear the Information Dominance Corps Warfare insignia after they have completed a qualification program.

The value of the virtual realm for training has been recognized for some time, but now artificial reality is being exploited for many other applications. Web 2.0 capabilities have opened new doors in cyberspace, and people and organizations are embracing the new world of virtual collaboration. The only limits to using this make-believe realm may be those of human imagination. SIGNAL's May issue looks at ongoing efforts to explore collaboration in the virtual world.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is the chief research center for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. Its home page highlights ongoing projects across a range of disciplines. Visitors can access information about programs in areas such as expeditionary maneuver warfare; command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR); ocean battlespace sensing; sea warfare and weapons; and naval air warfare and weapons.

The U.S. Navy has successfully conducted the first large-scale test of a technology that enables commanders to communicate with a submerged submarine, regardless of its speed and depth. In the final evaluations of the Deep Siren tactical paging system, which were held in June and August, a Navy submarine deployed special communications buoys that reached the surface to establish a communications link between the vessel and the test team in Norfolk, Virginia.

The U.S. Navy has commissioned the first littoral combat ship (LCS). The 378-foot USS Freedom features interchangeable mission packages so that it can be reconfigured for antisubmarine, mine and surface warfare on an as-needed basis. It is filled with advanced networking capabilities that enable it to share tactical information with other Navy aircraft, ships and submarines as well as with joint units.